Silvia Sarmiento
Doctoral Student
Research subject: Structural Engineering
Division: Structural and Fire Engineering
Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering
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Luleå, T2220
About me
I am a civil engineer currently undertaking a Ph.D. program in Structural Engineering focusing on reliability assessment of concrete bridges. I enjoy team activities, which allow me to learn from others and contribute to other people’s work.
I like reading, drawing, and spending time with my family in my leisure time. I also enjoy traveling to new places and experiencing new cultures and food.
During my journey as a Ph.D. student, I have had the opportunity to participate in different research projects and several interesting experiments. I have also had the chance to teach one of the courses at LTU and co-supervise several MSc students.
Research interests
As aging structures approach the end of their design life, maintaining a balance of structural safety, cost-effectiveness, and environmental sustainability is challenging. As we strive to uphold the safety and reliability of these structures, it becomes crucial to explore more practical and efficient methodologies and techniques in bridge engineering and reliability analysis.
My research focuses on advancing structural reliability methods within bridge engineering and its integration with Finite Element Modeling. By employing probabilistic-based methodologies, the aim is to enhance the safety and longevity of bridges while minimizing their maintenance costs and potential unnecessary replacement. This work aims to contribute to a more sustainable future for the construction industry by promoting integrating reliability principles into structural design practices.
My objectives are to
- Implement reliability-based methods to predict the remaining life of existing bridges,
- Develop reliability methods with low computational costs when using Non-linear Finite Element analysis.
- Quantify the influence of existing bridges degradation in their current structural safety.
Professional expertise
- Analysis of concrete bridges
- Non-linear finite element modelling
- Structural reliability
On-going projects
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